Observations on the Discovery in Various Localities of the Remains of Human Art Mixed with the Bones of Extinct Races of Animals

69

3. Oval or almond-shaped implements with a cutting edge all
round, possibly used as sling-stones or as axes (fig. 1).

Mr. Evans points out, that in form and workmanship those of the
two last classes differed essentially from the implements of the so-
called Celtic period, which are usually more or less ground and
polished, and cut at the wide and not the narrow end ; and that had
they been found under any circumstances, they must have been
regarded as the work of some other race than the Celts, or known
aboriginal tribes. He fully concurs with Mr. Prestwich, that the
beds of drift in which they were found were entirely undisturbed.

X. ^^ Observations on the Discovery in various Localities of the
Remains of Human Art mixed with the Bones of Extinct
Eaces of Animals.^' By Charles Babbage^ Esq., M.A._,
F.R.S. &c. Received May 26, 1859.

Statements have recently been made relative to the discovery of
works of human art occurring in a breccia amongst bones of ancient
animals, hitherto supposed to have been extinct long anterior to the
existence of our race. These observations are supposed by some to
prove the great antiquity of the human race ; whilst others, equally
competent to form an opinion, admit that the intermixture of such
remains presents a most perplexing mystery.

Whatever may be the result of yet unpublished or of future and
more extensive observations, it is certainly premature to assign this
great antiquity to our race, as long as the occurrence of such mix-
tures can be explained by known causes admitted to be still in
action.

Two places have recently been pointed out in which such mixtures
are stated to occur : — 1st, certain localities in France ; 2nd, certain
caves in Sicily. The latter have been visited by Dr. Falconer, and
as the information respecting them which we at present possess,
though small, is yet much more definite than what is known of the
French locality, my explanations will chiefly relate to the latter.

It is stated that one of the Sicilian caves has its sides perforated
bv marine animals.

That on penetrating the stalactitical incrustation covering the

roof of the cavern, and detaching fragments, it was found to consist
of a breccia of bones of animals long extinct, mixed with fragments
of flint or stone, bearing evident traces of human art.

In order to explain these circumstances, it is only necessary to
admit the upheaval of the land and the occurrence of torrents.

\st Period, — Let us suppose two caverns, a lower, A, and an
upper, B C, communicating with each other by a long rent or pipe
P. This pipe may be supposed of any height, sufficient when filled
with water to produce the required force.

The lower cavern is supposed to be nearly at the level of the sea.

Pholades and other marine animals will perforate or attach them-
selves to the bottom and sides of the cavern, and if the sea entirely

61

fill it : the roof, too, or at least that portion adjacent to the mouth of
the cavern, may be similarly aifected. The rocks in which these
caverns occur may be of any geological age.

2^^<i Period. — ^By the gradual or quick upheaval of the strata in
which these caverns occur, they may become dry.

During the rising, or at a later period, fragments of rock may
have accumulated at the open mouth of the lower cavern, and thus
have stopped up its entrance, leaving the roof, sides, and floors
bearing evident traces of having been an ocean cave.

^rd Feriod.- — Ages may have elapsed during which other strata
may have been depositing in other portions of our globe. But
ultimately the earth became inhabited by those ancient, but now
extinct mammalia, whose remains abound in its caverns.

Fig. 3.

Ath Period. — Ages may again have intervened when man, in his
first rude state of existence, entering this deserted den through the
opening its former occupants had used, might have been glad to
shelter himself from an inclement climate in this bone-house of a
more ancient world.

During this period traces of man's skill would probably be left
within his miserable abode ; pottery, if he possessed the art ; char-
coal or charred wood, if he were acquainted with fiire ; rude cutting
instruments of flint or other hard stone, perhaps spear or arrow-
heads.

62

Fig. 4 represents the caverns at the end of the fourth period.

Fig. 4.

bth Period. — Torrents entering by the aperture at C, might now
have svt^ept through the upper cavern, perhaps at successive intervals
of time. The effect of such torrents would be to wash from the
sloping floor of the upper cavern, the mixed remains of animal and
human life, together with the earliest traces of human art.

In some of these catastrophes, the workman, as well as his work,
may have been entombed together in the lower cavern,

Fis:. 5.

Thus in the course of time the whole of the lower cavern may
have been filled up even to the roof.

This state is represented in fig. 5.

63

The eiFect of infiltration through the roof would now cement into
a breccia the mingled remnants from the upper chamber, and enclose
them, as it were, in a marble monument, in their new, though not
their latest resting-place.

But the infiltration proceeding from the roof would act first, and
most powerfully, in cementing the upper part of the intruded mass.

The lower portion would be less consolidated, and therefore less
capable of resisting any pressure from above.

idth Period. — In the progress of time, some torrent of extra-
ordinary magnitude may have penetrated through the upper cavern,
and, filling the cliannel or pipe P, have acted by its hydrostatic
pressure on the semi-consolidated matter in the lower one. As the
water accumulated in the pipe, the pressure would become immense,
and ultimately the materials included in the lower cavern would give
way at their point of least resistance. This would probably be
towards the middle or bottom of the original entrance. The first
sudden rush would probably clear out the greater part of the con-
tents of the lower cavern, leaving, however, —

1st. Those portions attached to the roof by the infiltrated
matter.

2nd. Those portions on the ficor more consolidated by pressure
than the middle which gave way ; and also other portions of the
loose rubbish which the form of the floor at the entrance of the
cave might have intercepted in its course.

After this reopening of the lower cavern, the access of air would
accelerate evaporation from its roof, and that portion of the breccia
still adhering to it would gradually acquire the external coating of
stalactite which usually occurs in caves.

In the meantime the dropping from the roof, falling upon the
floor, might also contribute to consolidate the remaining fragments,
and, although more slowly, cover the whole of them with a stalag-
mitic floor.

In this state, on entering the lower cave, the walls would be found
perforated by marine animals, and no traces of animal life or of human
art would present itself ; but on excavating the floor, both would be
found below the stalagmite ; whilst if the curious inquirer should
drive his pick into the roof, its fragments would bear testimony to
the same fact.

64

Fig. 6 represents the final state of the cavern.

Fig. 6,

That caverns are occasionally filled with v^^ater, and after remaining
full perhaps for centuries, are drained by artificial or natural causes,
is v^^ell known. A very interesting case presented itself to me when
visiting the caverns of Mitch elstown in Ireland.

These caverns had recently (1833) become accessible, and were
then very imperfectly explored. I expressed to the guides my wish
to visit some of the unexplored portion, and, after traversing various
chambers during six hours, we entered a long and lofty cavern, the
floor of which sloped rather steeply towards one side. The whole
floor was covered with a coat of soft red mud, about three inches
thick, still holding a portion of the water in which it had been sus-
pended. No trace whatever of the footsteps of man or of animals
appeared ; the impression of our own feet alone marked the track
up to the point which we had reached. Being rather in advance of
my companions, my attention was suddenly attracted by what ap-
peared to me to be about a bushel of soot lying in a small heap on
the floor. On examination, I found it to consist of a moist spongy
substance, of a black colour, which might, if dry, have assumed the
form of a coarse black powder. Asking the opinion of my guide, he
suggested that it might have been the remains of a fire lighted by
some previous explorer ; but this was inadmissible. I looked round
for matter of the same kind, but on further search I could not
detect any other instance ; however, accidentally casting my eye

towards the roof of the cavern, I observed a black patch vertically
above the heap of supposed soot lying on the floor, and from 20 to
30 feet above it. The dotted line, ^ ........ 5, fig. 5, may repre-
sent the position.

On my return from the cavern I examined the black sooty matter*
and found that it left but very small traces under the action of the
blowpipe.

On the following day, having made inquiries as to the drainage of
the neighbouring country, I was informed that about twenty years
before my visit, a stream of water had been diverted from the valley
in which it originally flowed, into another adjacent valley.

I then visited several quarries, in one of which, about a mile from
the caves, I observed a small stream of water terminating in a little
pool or sink. In this pool I noticed slight eddies, which occasionally
sucked in very small particles floating on the surface of the water.

I now visited the valley from which the original stream had been
diverted, and found at some elevation a peat bog to which it had pro-
bably given rise. This peat was in several parts nearly black ; the most
decayed portion greatly resembled the black matter I had brought
from the cavern. The origin of this black matter in the cavern now
became apparent.

The large caverns I had visited were considerably below the level
of the peat moss, and the stream which flowed through it. A portion
of its waters was conveyed by sinks and crevices into the caves, and
kept them continually full. There must, however, have been some
very small leakage through which, when the stream which supplied
the water was cut off, those caverns were, after many years, laid dry.

A small mass of unconsolidated peat, sufliciently light to float,
must have been conveyed by the water into those caverns. When
it arrived at the spot on which the black matter was found, the
piece of peat which still floated must have been pressed against the
roof of the cavern. Remaining there undisturbed for years, it may
have become by decomposition specifically heavier than water, and
then have subsided vertically down on the floor to the place on which
I found it, leaving in the black spot on the roof the certificate of its
former residence. On the other hand, the piece of peat may have
retained its power of floating, and only have descended to the floor
of the cavern by the slow escape of the water.

VOL. X, F

66

Such circumstances as these ought to induce us to examine with
great caution, any instances of the occurrence of works of human art
mixed with the remains of animals not yet proved to have heen co-
existent with man. Accident might have conveyed and hidden in the
Mitchelstown caverns, a portion of human dress instead of a patch of
peat. It is ohvious that under shghtly altered circumstances, in-
struments formed by man, the bony remains of his frame, or those
of other recent animals, might, by still existing causes, be conveyed
into deep recesses in the bowels of the earth, and there deposited
with the remains of animals of an entirely different geological
age.

Cases might occur in which the water passing in larger quantity
would convey into such caverns a quantity of suspended mud^
differing in its character at various seasons, and thus silt up the
confused relics of distant ages in a regularly stratified deposit.

It is quite possible that the human remains might thus be
enclosed beneath the stalagmitic crust, whilst the more ancient
remains were scattered above it, uncovered, or covered by another
coat of stalagmite.

If we suppose the existence of two upper caves, B and C, at dif-
ferent heights, each separately communicating %vith the lowest cave,
A, as in fig. 7, then still more remarkable facts might ultimately
present themselves to those whom accident should lead to examine
the lowest cave. If, for example, the highest of these caves (C)
contained only the remains of the extinct races of animals, and the
other, or middle cave (B), nothing but those of man and the works
of his own hands, the following series of events might occur :— ~

1st. A flood directing its course wholly through the middle cave
(B), might wash down the fragments of the bones and works of
man from that cave, and deposit them on the floor of the lowest
cavern (A).

2nd. In a long series of years, a thick stalagmitic covering might
be formed, giving an entire new stony floor to that cavern.

3rd. Afterwards another flood, rising to a higher level, acci-
dentally taking its course through the highest cave (C), might cover
this new stalagmitic floor of the lowest cave (A) with the bony frag-
ments of these more ancient animals.

4th. The continued infiltration from above might again cover

67

these remains with another thick coating of stalagmite ; such altera-
tions might even he several times repeated.

The annexed sketch will explain this case more clearly j—

Fig. 7.

The great geological law, that the order of succession of strata in-
dicates the order of their antiquity, the lowest being always the
oldest, is limited by the condition that those strata shall not have
been removed from their original beds.

But the action of causes still existing may have produced apparent
deviations from this order, and the present state of geological science
seems to require an examination of such exceptional cases.

If a great river, similar to the Mississippi or the Amazon, flowed
through a country whose superficial stratum consisted of a thin bed
of chalk succeeded by gault, then during thousands of ages it
would distribute, by means of an ocean current, its milky burden
over the bottom of the existing ocean, on which, after a lengthened
interval, a bed of chalk would reappear.

When the superficial bed of chalk over which the river flowed
was cut through, its waters would begin to act on the newly-exposed
gault ; and after another period of equally vast length, a stratum of
gault might cover the chalk, thus producing an extensive inversion
of the two strata.

But this would be dependent on the relative fineness and specific
gravity of the particles of the two substances. It is possible that
the particles of gault, if larger or of greater specific gravity than
those of the chalk, might arrive at a greater terminal velocity, and

f2

68

even overtake and pass through those of the chalk still suspended,
thus forming a bed below the chalk, or a mixed bed of chalk passing
into gault, and then ultimately a bed of gault above the chalk.

In such circumstances fev^^ or none of the larger fossils would
occur, but possibly the remains of infusorial animals might enable us
to identify the material of the ancient and of the new but inverted
deposit of gault.

The case of remains of human art found imbedded with bones of
extinct races of animals in deposits of ancient gravel, seems to
require a different explanation.

x^dmitting, however, the existence of those animals to have been
contemporaneous with the original distribution of the gravel, it by no
means certainly follows that the race of man was coeval with them.

For the remains of man and his rude arts might occur on the
surface of that gravel long ages after the extinction of those races of
animals. Several causes might produce their mixture : —

1st. A vast lake bursting its barriers by erosion, or by an earth-
quake, might carry before it in its impetuous course the superficial
remains of man, mixed up with vast quantities of gravel, containing
the bones of the extinct races of animals, and deposit them over a
large area of land at a lower level.

2nd. The change of the course of a river, or of a branch of its
delta, might produce the same mixture of the remains of two distinct
and far distant ages. It might, by the clearing out of its new
channel, carry off the gravel and the remains of extinct animals, and
deposit them, mixed up with specimens of human art, on spots
which, after a few centuries, might again reappear as dry land.

3rd. A narrow pass, the outlet of a stream of water, might be
stopped up by the avalanches falling from a glacier after a severe
winter, and the lake formed by the stream might thus periodically
rise, until the pressure broke through the barrier.

4th, Amongst the phenomena occurring during earthquakes, it
has been observed that large cracks have suddenly opened and as
suddenly closed, either immediately or shortly after. During these
momentary or temporary openings, the remains of the arts of man,
and even man himself, may have dropped into the chasm. Under
such circumstances, remains of man and his arts might occur in

69

formations of any date. If the cleft occurred in rock or in any
very hard material, traces of it would remain to indicate their origin.
If it occurred in clay or softer material, the track through which
these remains entered might be partially or even entirely obliterated.
If the cleft occurred in tolerably compact gravel and then imme-
diately closed, it would scarcely be possible at a future period to
trace its origin.

The discussion of the recent observations of Mr. Prestwich on
flints, worked apparently by the hand of man, found deeply im-
bedded in ancient gravel, as well as the extensive observations of
Dr. Falconer on the bone-caves of Sicily, have given a new and
important interest to the great question of the antiquity of the resi-
dence of our race on the planet we inhabit.

Having examined a few of these flint-instruments, I am satisfied
that several of them have been worked by human hands. This
opinion is founded upon the previous examination many years ago of
the mode then used for making gun-flints.

Amongst the many valuable observations of Dr. Falconer, one
fact to which he testifies deserves the most marked attention,
and may possibly assist in directing us to the true solution of the
problem .

Dr. Falconer has noticed the fact that the greater portion of these
bones belong to the Hippopotamus, and also that they occur in their
several deposits in enormous numbers. In each cave there must
have been several thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individuals.
The question immediately suggests itself, what causes produced this
vast collection of individuals of the same race entombed in one
common sepulchre?

It is scarcely possible to suppose that any instinct could have led
the Hippopotamus, when death approached, to have chosen particular
spots where the bones of his race were exposed to his view. If this
were so, then most probably the existing race would possess the same
instinct.

Another question arises : Were these remains originally deposited in
different localities, and afterwards transported by some common cause
to these various caverns and beaches ? Water seems the only probable
mode of conveyance : if this were so, traces of the rolling action of
water must be found on all the bones, but this I apjirehend is not

the case. Moreover, it is difficult to conceive how water could have
collected the bones of a multitude of individuals of the same race^
distributed over a wide extent of country, into a few favoured
localities. The bones of all other animals inhabiting the same
country, and remaining on its surface, would have been exposed to
the same action, and should have been deposited in the same tomb.
If these animals all perished at the same time in each locality, some
common cause must have produced the catastrophe.

Although the existing evidence may be insufficient to lead us to
the true solution of this interesting question, yet it may be useful to
throw out hypotheses, which, by accounting for some of the facts,
shall direct the attention of future observers to the examination of
such special points as may either partially support or directly dis-
prove these conjectures.

"With this view I shall oifer two conjectures, one dependent on the
subsidence of the land, the other upon the rising of the waters.

Conjecture I. — By the subsidence of the land.

Let us imagine that the basin of the bottom of the Mediterranean
had at a former period been on a level with, or just above the
African continent. Sicily and the various islands would then have
stood above it as mountain chains.

One portion of the drainage of this land may have been effected
by a vast river passing into the Atlantic through the opening now
known as the Straits of Gibraltar.

In this state of things extensive freshwater lakes and other large
rivers may have contributed to support large herds of Hippo-
potami.

In such circumstances the gradual subsidence of this land would
check the outflow of its rivers, and occasion extensive marshes and
lakes, a state of things favourable to the increase of the Hippo-
potami. As the subsidence proceeded, those animals which dwelt
on the banks of the lakes and rivers would be driven inland. The
waters of the Atlantic, entering through the channel of the former
river, would convert the low ground and the marshes into sea, and
thus gradually isolate the sinking land from the African coast.

When this state of the country had caused the Hippopotami to
multiply rapidly, an increased rapidity in the sinking of its lands
through the waters, might drive those animals rapidly to the higher

71

lands, which would then form islands, on the borders of which they
would congregate in multitudes, until numbers of them, collected in
ravines, rushing on in their attempts to escape in search of food,
might trample each other to death and leave their bodies at the foot
of impassable precipices washed by this new sea.

Conjecture II. — Let us suppose that the basin of the Mediter-
ranean was formerly dry land shut in from the Atlantic by a barrier
at the Straits of Gibraltar. In these circumstances the whole of the
present Mediterranean Sea would have been a country sunk more or
less under the level of the ocean ; just as a large tract of country
around the Dead Sea is at present.

The country included in this great depression might be warmer
than others situated in the same latitude, and would be full of lakes
fed by rivers, since there could be no drainage except from evaporation.
It would therefore probably be favourable to the growth of the
Hippopotamus.

Imagine now some convulsion to have opened the Straits of
Gibraltar, so as to have allowed the waters of the Atlantic to enter
this vast basin. The salt river thus introduced might require days,
or weeks, or months, or years, before it filled this immense cavity ; it
might also increase its velocity as it wore away the channel of its
entrance.

Under these circumstances the Hippopotami would be gradually
driven to the higher ground, and those mountainous regions which
now form the islands of the Mediterranean would then have re-
ceived on their shores the hosts of animals, driven by this inundation
to seek dry land on which to repose and food on which they might
subsist.

Both of these hypotheses account for the aggregation in different
localities, of the remains of large numbers of animals of the same
class, dweUing amongst rivers and lakes ; both equally account for
their destruction on the same spots, either by trampling each other to
death in the rush to escape, or by the slower processes of drown-
ing or starvation. But neither hypothesis accounts for the fractured
state of these bones, even though the animals should have rushed
over the precipice. It might be expected that some portion of these
Hippopotami, escaping from the deluge which destroyed their race,
would have reached the plains of some larger island, and then

72

separating in search of food^ have left their carcases^ wasted by
famine, variously scattered at a distance from each other.

The following questions are thus sug^gested for inquiry :—

Are the bones of young and of old animals mixed indiscriminately
throughout the whole of these bone-beds ?

Is it possible to distinguish the bones of females from those of
males ?

Do the bones of the larger and stronger individuals occur in
greater abundance near the top of the bone-beds, and those of the
smaller and feebler animals nearer the bottom of those beds ?

If the sea followed these animals quickly, the young and the
feeblest would perish before they reached the great deposits of bones.

Although not at all confident that either of these explanations is
the true one, I look upon them as open to less objection than any
other of w^hich I have yet heard, and therefore give them a tem-
porary assent.

The conclusion to which these remarks lead, is that whilst we
ought to be quite prepared to examine any evidence which tends to
prove the great antiquity of our race, yet that if the facts adduced
can be explained and accounted for by the operation of a few simple
and natural causes, it is unphilosophical to infer the coexistence of
man with those races of extinct animals.

The interest and importance of the subject are such, that new and
still more extensive researches cannot fail to be made ; and if these
remarks shall in any way contribute to lighten the labour of future
inquirers, or to promote the true explanation of the facts, they will
have fully attained the object of their publication.

XI. ^^ Remarks on Colour-Blindness.^^ By Sir John F. W,

Herschel^ Bart._, F.R.S,

[Extracted from a Report by Sir J. F. W. H. on Mr. Pole's paper
on the same subject''', and communicated at the request of the Pre-
sident and Council.]

1 consider this paper as in many respects an exceedingly valuable
contribution to our knowledge of the curious subject of colour-blind-

* ^' Proceedings," vol viii. p, 172; and vol, ix. p. 716,